Timothy Gray's blog

I guess I am destined to go fishing instead of going to City Council meetings in the next few years.
The 5,000 votes I got for my brand of Environmental preservation, fiscal restraint, and socially progressive outlook didn't win over those entrenched in the machines. Back to fishing for Salmon and Steelhead. Thanks for all the kind cheers. I modeled participation in democracy for my children and started friendships with some pretty enlightened people.
LIZ KNISS 24.60% 11,888
GREG SCHMID 19.30% 9,327
PAT BURT 18.62% 8,996
MARC BERMAN 18.54% 8,956
TIMOTHY GRAY 10.62% 5,130

Palo Alto has made improvements in San Francisquito Creek to reduce potential flooding from "Choke Points" as the water flows to the Bay.

One major "Choke Point" that continues to keep areas of Crescent Park including areas of the Duvenek / St. Francis Neighborhood Association is the Chaucer Street Bridge. Progress has been made in creating plans for this solution, but the unresolved funding essentially keeps residents in this area hostage to the threat of another flood season.

At the two most recent league of Women Voters forums, Liz Kniss has discussed how she would like to lead a local effort to reform prop 13 to allow higher residential property taxes since "residents should be willing to pay more for the valuable services they are receiving." She said that it is simply "not fair that new buyers pay $20,000 to $30,000 a year in property taxes and and previous home owners are paying significantly less. I am sure there are many in this room that would be willing to pay more," she said.

I am advocating for us to take an Infrastructure First approach to budgeting so that we don't get further behind in maintaining our streets and sidewalks (fully fund "keep-up" and also set aside a few more million to the "catch-up" category. We should also set aside reserves for replacing our newer facilities from day one, so that we have a meaningful pool of money to repair and replace them as needed.